Cohen told The Guardian: "There's been a couple of times when other people have said can we have a moratorium please on 'Hallelujah'? Must we have it at the end of every single drama and every single Idol?

"And once or twice I've felt maybe I should lend my voice to silencing it but on second thought no, I'm very happy that it's being sung."

The singer also confirmed that he plans to play more shows and release another album following his upcoming LP Old Ideas.

He added: "I don't really like songs with ideas. They tend to become slogans. They tend to be on the right side of things: ecology or vegetarianism or anti-war.

"All these are wonderful ideas but I like to work on a song until these slogans… dissolve into deeper convictions of the heart."